Royal Mail halves email queries with web self-service

Royal Mail has halved the number of business and consumer queries it receives by email, after implementing a web self service system from Transversal.

Leo King
August 1, 2008

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Royal Mail has halved the number of business and consumer queries it receives by email, after implementing a web self service system from Transversal.

It has called the new system ‘Ask Sarah’, and said it could now free staff time in order to answer more complex customer enquiries. The system was launched at the start of June, after six months’ design, development and testing, and answers to questions were created by contact centre advisors.

The new system integrates with Royal Mail’s increasing range of online services such as parcel tracking, redirection and redelivery. It also integrates with two separate information databases, one for Royal Mail’s business customers and one for consumers. Some 4.5 million people visit its website each month, a million more than the same time last year.

Stephen Mitchell, digital operations manager, said Royal Mail had “seen customer satisfaction rise and inbound enquiries drop dramatically” since introducing the new system. In some areas, customer email enquiries have fallen by 96 percent, though they have halved on average across the UK.

It plans to adjust the system on an ongoing basis, using historical information stored by the technology on customer searches.

Royal Mail is hoping to save £300 million by next year after implementing an SAP e-procurement platform.

The roll-out of the platform is part of a wider three-year procurement transformation programme at Royal Mail promising process and technology changes. Service provider Deloitte was hired to help with business planning, procurement, change and people management, and technology enablement.

Under chief information officer Robin Dargue, Royal Mail is planning to hand out over 130,000 new mobile devices to link up remotely with various back-office applications in use across the organisation.